Republicans in Congress and beyond are gearing up to capitalize on a GOP trifecta to make unprecedented, sweeping changes to education in America.
Trump has vowed to abolish the Department of Education, which many of his allies think would be difficult to do. Still, in a second Trump administration, Republicans envision an opportunity to reduce federal influence over education and promote ideology aligned with conservative beliefs.
And many of his allies on Capitol Hill are eager to see him do it.
“I’m confident that the Republican majority in Congress and the Trump administration will pick up where we have left off: empowering students and families and fostering success at every level,” Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement to NOTUS, adding that a goal is to “[shrink] the bureaucracy.”
Foxx, the outgoing chair, added that she would like to see legislation passed under the Trump administration that would “enact real and lasting change that can’t be undone after an election cycle and will benefit generations of students to come.”
With control of the White House, Trump and other Republicans can immediately begin enacting major changes and pushing back against what conservatives have called the “wokeness” and “left-wing indoctrination” they see in the American education system.
“What our country’s always been about is return on investment. That’s what the free market is all about. We have one industry that has never come close to a return on investment, and that’s education,” Rep. Burgess Owens, a Republican member of the House education committee, told NOTUS.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. But Trump has already said he would make a point of pursuing education proposals popular among conservatives, like promoting universal school choice, defunding schools that engage in “CRT and gender indoctrination” (academic experts have insisted that Critical Race Theory is not part of any K-12 education curriculum) and banning transgender athletes from sports (which has been a piece of broader anti-trans messaging from the Republican Party).
While not impossible, abolishing the Department of Education would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely. But it could be downsized or severely limited by cutting staff. They could also use the department to deliver on Republican priorities, through directives to states, for example.
“There are a number of things that you can easily imagine the Department of Education doing, which are equal and opposite to what we’ve seen the Obama and Biden Department of Education do,” said Max Eden, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “I think it is much more likely than not to go in that direction.”
Much of what will transpire depends on who the next secretary of education is. Some of the names reportedly being considered to lead the agency have received national attention for implementing Christian and conservative education policy in their home states.
“I am excited about what this Trump administration will mean for students and parents across the country,” Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s superintendent of education, said in a statement to NOTUS. Brumley is reportedly being considered for the role. “We must go back to the basics in reading in math, expand school choice and renew civics education founded in American exceptionalism.”
In Congress, multiple Republican representatives echoed Owens’ call for a return on investments.
“Federal spending should have outcomes in mind. And the outcomes in the last couple of decades from the federal Department of Education have not been desirable. We need to revamp how it is we look at federal investment in our kids’ education,” New York Rep. Nick LaLota said.
It’s unclear whether there’s a favorite among congressional Republicans for the role of secretary.
But Rep. Max Miller said he hoped that the next education secretary would prioritize “sticking to the curriculum, not teaching an opinion, doing the very best that they can to make sure that every child in our country receives the best education that’s possible.”
Some conservative education advocates also hope that the administration looks to move the bulk of the Department of Education’s responsibilities to states before it considers dismantling it.
“The first thing that the next Secretary of Education needs to do is unwind all of the programs and the federal influence in those programs, create the off-ramp for the federal government, and then the Trump administration should analyze whether there is merit and worthiness for the it [Department of Education] to keep its cabinet status,” said Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s superintendent of public instruction.
New York Rep. Mike Lawler thinks the public “freak out” that has accompanied Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education is unwarranted.
“At the end of the day, most education issues are dealt with at the state and local level. And everybody acknowledges that, but then freaks out the moment there’s discussions about the Department of Education,” he said. “I mean, most education is controlled by state and local authorities, including local school boards. Ultimately, we’ll see what’s proposed by the president and deal with it as it comes.”
Trump has already said he would use the Department of Justice to leverage civil rights cases against certain schools that advance what he has called discriminatory policies “under the guise of equity.” Eden theorized that Title VI and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibit discrimination based on race and gender, could be used to execute Trump’s goal of removing DEI initiatives from schools and banning transgender athletes from sports.
Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, are bracing for impact.
“We’re in reactive mode,” Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, told NOTUS.
In Congress, Trump has plenty of allies with ideas of their own on how to approach education.
School choice has been and remains a key priority for Republicans. Owens is a co-sponsor of legislation that would allot $10 billion in annual tax credits to promote school choice. Republicans haven’t ruled out slipping similar provisions into next year’s tax bill, or otherwise making such credits available — it’s a goal the first Trump administration fell short of achieving.
According to Owens, all options are on the table.
“What we’re looking for is what works. … And if it’s not working, then we don’t need to invest any more money into it,” Owens said. “We’re looking at whatever it takes. Decentralization. Reformation. Getting rid of it. Whatever it takes.”
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.